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The ancient Ayanis Castle in modern-day Turkey continues to yield artifacts for exploring archaeologists, including the recent discovery of 2,700-year-old bronze shields and a helmet.
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The castle served as a fortress and royal residence until it was likely destroyed by an earthquake.
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The experts that made the new discovery believe that the artifacts were ceremonial in nature, made to honor a god the ancient Urartu Kingdom’s people believed protected them during war.
A team of archaeologists uncovered three bronze shields and a bronze helmet that were buried under more than 20 feet of castle rubble at the site of Ayanis Castle in eastern Turkey. The artifacts are roughly 2,700 years old, and decorations on the helmet point towards the discoveries likely being ceremonial gifts offered to a god or royalty.
According to social media posts from Mehmet Nuri Ersoy, minister of Culture and Tourism of the Republic of Turkey, archaeologists found the artifacts during excavations of the city of Ayanis, the last and largest city of the Urartu Kingdom, an ancient civilization of Anatolian history.
“Three bronze shields and a bronze helmet dedicated to Haldi, the chief god of the Urartians, were new artifacts unearthed during the excavations,” Ersoy wrote. The artifacts found in the monumental temple complex dedicated to Haldi “reflect the richness and level reached of Urartian metal craftsmanship.”
The Ayanis Castle sits in Turkey’s Eastern Anatolian region of Van. It was the last major castle built during the Urartu Kingdom, likely during the reign of King Rusa II in the mid-seventh century BC. Located on a rocky hill with views of Lake Van and the surrounding area, it was both fortress and royal residence. The castle and temple within stood for merely 20 to 25 years before an earthquake destroyed it.
“We found the shields and helmet about six to seven meters deep [more than 20 feet],” said Mehmet Isikli, project lead from the Archaeology Department at Ataturk University, according to the Hurriyet Daily News, “and they are in remarkably good condition. Although there are some minor fractures, we are hopeful that restoration efforts will fully preserve them.”
The team said they located the bronze shields in what was once a ceremonial room and that intricate decorations on the helmet add to the belief that the pieces were used during ceremonies. “These shields likely belonged to the royal family or an elite warrior group, as Urartians were known to gift such items to nobility,” Isikli said.
These aren’t the first bronze items to surface at the ancient castle. In all, about 30 bronze shields have been discovered at the site during the 36-year excavation project, many in the temple area. The shields in the temple were likely dedicated to the deity Haldi, credited for protecting the military during battle.
Believed destroyed during an earthquake—a 2023 find of a skeleton at the site showed the person had been wearing jewelry and carrying seals and a double-sided cuneiform tablet at the time of the death, likely due to a fall that could have been a result of the earthquake—the castle and temple rubble destroyed much of what was at the site. “Many of the artifacts are deformed due to this damageIsikli said in a statement, according to Arkeo News, “but the shields and helmet are still in great condition.”
As the bronze finds add up over the three-plus-decade effort at the ancient castle, every discovery gives experts new insight into Urartian culture. “This area was a hub of metalwork, particularly bronze weapons,” Isikli said. “Our ongoing work here reveals the Urartians’ exceptional skills in metallurgy.”
“This castle is proving to be the richest Urartian site in Turkey for many reasons, not the least of which is the quantity of bronzes associated with the temple,” Paul Zimanksy, a Stony Brook University professor who worked at the site 15 years ago, but was not involved in the recent effort, told Live Science, adding that locating multiple bronze pieces of this caliber “would be big news at any other site, but for Ayanis they are nothing out of the ordinary.”
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